DESTINY GAMES

She explained to him, "The problem is that you couldn’t imagine just how powerful they are. But this expedition will broaden your horizon. Prepare to have your world reshaped."

He smiled and said, "Sign me up."

He moved along with the line of soldiers entering the spaceship. They entered an elevator that took them up to a platform where they could reach and enter the spaceship.

All of them entered its belly, where the single large space that spans the whole length of the spaceship was located. It took them about a minute of walking before they could reach this destination.

This space was truly large. It was at least a hundred meters in height. As for length, it was at least 5 kilometers. The breadth was 500 meters by his estimates.

This is just what he can tell about the space within the spaceship. He can’t tell much about the spaceship itself, only that it is too big.

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There were many other soldiers waiting for him there. Most of them were the second division of the army. They all stood in a neat formation.

They were uniform in shape, size, and posture. They even had the same skin complexion.

Wrath said to him, "Lucky you. You encountered the Black humans of Earth-10 on your first expedition. Black humans are rare in the Yggdrasil civilization. They inhabit only one earth. So feast your eyes."

His eyes were already drinking in the sights. He said in awe, "They look so cool."

Wrath nodded.

They indeed looked cool. Maybe it was their similar uniform, their stiff posture, or the fact that they had the same color for their skin and their armor. But he found them to look like real soldiers. They certainly looked more like soldiers compared to the third division of the army.

The first division was nowhere in sight. There was an empty space that took up half of the whole corridor. The second division took up two-thirds of the remaining half. This left one third of the half or one sixth of the total space left for the third division.

It appeared that the second division had been ready for some time. The third division was just arriving.

The third division looked just like he expected them to look. They appeared to be mercenaries from different walks of life.

They were of different races, unlike the second division. Most of them were humans, but these humans had different complexions. Then there were the non-human races too.

Together with their different equipment and the loose way they stood around each other, they looked like a ragtag group of hired guns.

Those in the front of the third division close to the second division tried to mimic the arrangement of the second division. They stood at a uniform, respectable distance from each other.

But this attempt at order devolved farther along the line very quickly. At Kelvin’s position, everyone was just standing around either gawking at the second division, the interior of the spacecraft, or other third division soldiers.

Even Kelvin is part of the problem. He has stopped staring at the second division and begun staring at the non-humans. The sight of various kinds of beast people made him intrigued.

Not that there was anything else to do. He could only wait for everyone to arrive and then the people in charge of the expedition to complete their final checks. Only then will they be able to leave.

So he busied himself with the sights. Things were extra interesting since the people in the third division were chatting. He could hear all sorts of tidbits and stories from them.

What he noticed was that some people were silent and still. They didn’t speak or interact with anyone. They stood still and looked forward just like the soldiers of the second division.

These people stood out like black geese in a flock of white geese. So he wanted to know why they were standing like that. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

What he noticed was that all of them were strong. The bulk of them were at the B rank. Very few were at C-rank. There were more A-rank than C-rank. Even S-rank was more than C-rank.

This wasn’t odd by itself. But when he noticed that the people chatting and frolicking about were much weaker, he frowned.

The last thing he needed to understand the situation was that if these lonely and silent soldiers were human, they were older. None of them was a teenager like him.

He said to Wrath, "Those must be veterans, right?"

Wrath looked at where he was gesturing to and nodded. She said, "By the looks of things, they have survived at least one expedition. They will have at least one star. That is one more star than noons like you."

He ignored her jab and asked, "Why are they standing around like that?"

Wrath considered his question and said, "The simple answer is that they have been traumatized. They have seen many horrors and understand what kind of danger they might encounter. They understand that they might not return from this expedition, so they are not in the mood to chat."

Kelvin said, "I know what kind of danger we might encounter too. Why am I not dull like them?"

Wrath chuckled and said, "You’re wrong. The word I used was understand, not know. Those two are different things."

Before he could ask her to explain, she did willingly, "Someone that knows that a demigod will be on the battlefield doesn’t necessarily understand what it means to have a demigod on the battlefield. Understanding comes from personal experience."

"You’re wrong to say that you know the danger that you might encounter. You understand it. But your understanding is not as clear as theirs, and you are abnormally used to trauma. That’s why you’re still in the mood to chat."

He considered her words before saying, "I won’t be a noob for long. I will get at least one star during this expedition."

She sighed and said, "I hope you’re right for both our sakes."